Explanation and experiment on Archimedes’ law: what the principle, the formula and the demonstration of the equilibrium condition in floating say.
Archimedes ‘ law is one of the fundamental rules of physics . Thanks to these statements, we can study every phenomenon that occurs. According to this law:
a body immersed in a fluid , gas or liquid, receives a vertical thrust from bottom to top . This thrust is equal to the weight of the fluid in the displaced volume . Therefore the weight of the displaced fluid corresponds to the weight of the fluid that occupies a volume equal to that immersed .
Let’s keep in mind that it doesn’t matter whether the body is partially or completely immersed in the fluid.
This law takes its name from the scientist who discovered it, Archimedes : it seems that while immersed in the bathtub he noticed the phenomenon that inspired this statement.
According to legend, King Hiero asked Archimedes to determine the authenticity of a gold crown. He had to verify whether the forging material was only the precious metal or an addition of some other metal to increase its weight.
Archimedes was able to demonstrate the composition of the crown. He observed that when he immersed himself in the bathtub, the water level rose.
In this guide we will see how to perform a simple experiment , to verify the validity of Archimedes’ law , and to deduce any physical implications.
Required materials
- Metal support
- 4 samples of unspecified mass
- 1 graduated container
- Waterfall
- Dynamometer
Archimedes’ law: formula
Archimedes’ law is also called hydrostatic thrust . The formula of this law is:
- Fa = Pf * g * V.
“Fa” stands for Archimedean Force, “Pf” for Fluid Weight, “g” for gravitational acceleration and “V” for volume. Starting from the definition, we can deduce that the thrust is independent of the shape of the body, but also of the depth at which this body is located.
The demonstration of the law
To carry out this experiment, we will need to get a metal support. This is made up of a small rod, a support board, a clamp and a wire clamp. We then add some water to a graduated basin. In this way we can easily measure its volume. Then we proceed by inserting the bodies, which must have an indefinite mass. We measure the rise in the water level caused by the presence of these masses inside it. In this way we will be able to demonstrate Archimedes’ law, starting from a really simple experiment.
Collecting data in a table
Before starting the experiment, let’s make sure we have a useful table to insert the data collected during this experiment. We will easily notice that the water level, without the immersion of the body, is always constant. When immersing bodies with different weights, however, the water level will rise irregularly, and these will remain immersed differently.
